Me, Myself, and My Appendix: WTF, Man?

HI GUYS! I’m having surgery tomorrow!! I am very excited! I am finally having my appendix removed, something I have wished for since I was 5 years old and learned that it could just BURST and MURDER you like a goddamn ASSASSIN we all just let LIVE in our bodies like it’s no big deal.

I once had surgery for ovarian cysts and asked the surgeon to suck out my appendix while she was in there. She declined. A true story.

Appendicitis was my single biggest medical worry growing up. I carried this fear into college, where I made friends go to the ER the second they had a twinge of pain in the right place. As an adult, I would endlessly question anyone I met who had undergone an appendectomy, desperate to know how exactly how the pain felt when it began.

WHY do we still have them??

For all of my preparation, I never once considered that this might be what was going on with me when the pain started about 9 months ago. It’s not always near my appendix, it comes and it goes, sometimes it’s awful and sometimes I don’t even notice it. There’s so much referred pain in the torso that at first it was impossible to tell where it was actually originating from. I went to my doctor, to an OB/GYN, a surgeon, had an ultrasound to check for ovarian cysts again, and finally had a CT scan. After the scan, my doctor called while I was driving with the husband, and on speakerphone she told me that, as it turned out, I was suffering from chronic appendicitis. The husband burst out laughing because he has been witness to my crazy train of wishing to get my appendix out of me since we met.

Then, because he is also a doctor, he had to explain to me what chronic appendicitis actually was. Because WHO HAS EVER HEARD OF CHRONIC APPENDICITIS?? Turns out it’s extremely rare, so of course that’s what I get. Most people get acute appendicitis, where it hurts, you go to the ER, they take it out, and it’s over. I get the one that goes on for days, weeks, months, even years before you’re diagnosed. And because it’s not an emergency, you still have to wait for surgery even once you’ve been diagnosed. I first saw my surgeon on November 5, but couldn’t schedule surgery until tomorrow, January 11th. In that time, some days it hurt so badly I could hardly walk.

Some days, it felt so good that I could run 6 miles just fine. I’m training for another half marathon with my sister and my BFF (hi Ellie and Laura! I’m running a 16 minute mile right now WHAT UP I’M SO FAST) in May. Hopefully I’m recovered from surgery and able to start running again by February, or else my training schedule gets out of whack and Laura has to fix it for me again because I can’t math.

ANYWAY, that’s my big news and I’m super excited to finally get my appendix out. It’s actually been hurting a lot this week, and chronic appendicitis can sometimes turn acute, so it seems like I’m getting this done at the right time.

Now accepting this appendix shaped necklace as a get well gift [UPDATE: someone fabulous ACTUALLY BOUGHT THIS for me already the rest of you are punks 😂]

I don’t anticipate the recovery impacting my blogging schedule too much, and if nothing else I’m sure I’ll be around on Twitter, so stop over and say hi!

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9 thoughts on “Me, Myself, and My Appendix: WTF, Man?”

I hope your surgery goes well! I had a slightly similar issue with my gallbladder; those pesky gallstones were horrible sometimes. Pain would come and go (once or twice a month?), but when it came, it really did its thing. So glad I got it taken out, lol.